Lisa M. Rose

Lisa M. Rose wrote a great book, "Midwest Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 109 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness." First things first though, some of the pictures were great and would help you identify certain plants, but other pictures weren't very helpful and that was a pity. Still, that is the only reason for a 4 star instead of a five-star. You can look each of these up and get a better idea of what they look like though.

The book spends quite a bit of time covering the ethics of foraging for these plants. Rose goes into where you should or shouldn't be harvesting these plants due to laws and pollution. She gives a lot of great advice on what tools a modern apothecary should have around the house. Also, Rose gives you many recipes, or advice on how to make the recipes for various items such as tinctures, decoctions, infusions, salves, and more. She even tosses in the advice on the use of Vitamin E, tocopherol that helps keep your salve shelf stable for longer. Oils always have the chance to go rancid and this is handy advice that I have seen sorely lacking in other books and online.

Each plant that she covers (as I don't believe in using the word 'weed'), tells you the common and Latin names. It goes into other names that they are known by and even other types of the same plant. It tells you what parts are used, what the plant does medicinally, how to identify it, pictures of the plant itself, where/when/how to wildcraft it, and even how much of it to harvest so that you have enough for future harvests. Rose has instructions on what plants are ready to harvest during what parts of the year and where you can find these plants to make it easier to find them and harvest them when appropriate, a season-by-season harvest guide. There is even a space for how to prepare that particular plant, either as teas, tinctures, infusions, or decoctions.

There is a handy conversions chart for measurements, as well as a list of "further reading" that will keep you busy and learning a lot more. If you live in the Midwest or are planning on moving here, this would be an excellent book to get to help you know which plants would help you and which might even harm you. There are nice little tidbits of information about plants, including ones like Wood Betony that can actually absorb poisons/toxins from plants that are nearby and cause problems for you so you are instructed to only harvest from ones that are not around poisonous plants. I never knew that. It is a great book to say the very least. It is a must-have for a budding herbalist/apothecary in the Midwest for sure as it is a lot more than just a list of plants and what they do.… (meer)